... we were so kool, we hadda wear shades.
When I warr juss a young undergrad, The Doors were very big in our world - The End, Apocalypse Now, Moonlight Ride, plus Warren Zevon was into all that sort of thing with Excitable Boy etc. It was the leftwing fashion to force us into dealing with such concepts within a zippy, catchy rhythm - Cockney Rebel also did that - it was all about psycho narcissists with not the least compassion for any human. That was supposed to be entertaining?
I escaped it by refusing to go watch Peckinpah and similar - really sick people like those things - but that was my personal choice and my loss of "friends" as a result.
It wasn't until 2020 or so, with 2020 hindsight, that I understood just how evil muvvers really were pushing such stuff into the "entertainment" industry and you went along with it ... or sank. It's probably easiest to see when you look at Laurel Canyon, Summer of "Love" [read hookups and rampant disease], and who the fathers of Zappa and others were - CIA and other shadowy departments. There was nothing accidental in all this, nothing accidental in Leary, the Merry Jesters, Kesey etc. Nothing accidental in Sandoz, Eli Lilly.
The only Doors song I can now sit through is above and even then it has this inevitable "killer on the road". One sick puppy, Morrison, yet we defended him against US Plod for ruining our catchy rhythms, shutting our fun down. Were Plod wrong on that? Poison is sugar-coated.
Leary himself was a hero to us, just as were Hunter S. Thompson and Kerouac, they in turn used and pushed things associated with Sandoz, Eli Lilly, Farben. Farben, by the way, is associated with Pfizer, Aventis, Pharmacia, Bayer, BASF, Cargill, Hoffman La Roche, Warner Lambert, with ties to Rockefeller-Farben. Doesn't take much ferreting.
The Moody Blues, delicate young men with that soft sound of Nights in White Satin, also sang this below but at least, to their credit, they portrayed it as a false route, a false dawn:
Thing was, musically, it was damned good, so much better than today's soma-satanic howling. The one below I've run before here - very static in gestures, very wooden in his old age, but in earlier days, Steve Harley warr quite the lad - he made an art form of vicious narcissism and violence. My mates and I lapped it up until I broke away. This below was about lost love:
Saw an interview with him in recent days, may have mentioned it last time ... seemed a genuinely nice guy. In that clip, think he was making a comeback.
And little did it occur to me that while I was sitting cross legged on the floor in Diedres front room, smoking delightful Lebanese hash from Declan the dealer. Hash from the Bekkah valley, where it turns out the IRA were training and arming. Little did I realise. Until Dierdres mum pitched up, a doctor no less, panting heavily having had a run in with the police. I was quietly stoned at that moment, kept quiet and tried to pay attention. Little did I realise, even after a few weeks later there was a series of IRA bomb attempts locally. I don't and haven't taken sides on that dispute, there is history and not ain't exactly all on our side. Little did I realise that I was close to the local equivalent of the Bader Meinhoff Septembrists. As I look back on those days I consider myself very very lucky.
ReplyDeleteNames changed, or not, to protect myself and innocent people.
Sounds far more colourful and exciting than my boring old experiences. :)
DeleteJames, you mentioned the Moody Blues recently. Their style of vocalisation was softer than their contemporaries, I think of Ian Gillan and the shouty type of singing. Lately I've noticed that TV commercials feature the softer voicing, back of the throat warbling. Now is not the time to shout, we are being told. Now I'd the time to lay back and take what's given.
ReplyDeleteI have this to say about the Moody Blues, in their own words.
First Man:
I think, I think I am, therefore I am, I think
Establishment:
Of course you are my bright little star
I've miles
And miles
Of files
Pretty files of your forefather's fruit
And now to suit our
Great computer
You're magnetic ink
First Man:
I'm more than that, I know I am, at least, I think I must be
Inner Man:
There you go man, keep as cool as you can
Face piles
Of trials
With smiles
It riles them to believe
That you perceive
The web they weave
And keep on thinking free
Song entitled In the Beginning, from the album On the Threshold of a Dream.
Ok, they were hippies. They survived that era and produced some very good music. Rubbing shoulders with people doesn't necessarily make you one of them. There are plenty of examples from that era predicting what is happening today. Probably coincidence.
If only I knew then what I know now.